Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/275

Rh produced a race with a paranoid make-up seems not altogether improbable. The general paranoid attitude of the race is shown in an almost universal tendency to assume the possession of superior racial mental qualifications, and when these are denied or in any way gainsaid, to fail to appreciate the point of view of the one who opposes them.

This idea of superiority to other people is so inbred that it has probably become a hereditary character for which the individual is entirely irresponsible. But a paranoid make-up is not particularly dangerous to its possessor who is otherwise normal, unless by great stress or a very unusual combination of disagreeable experiences this tendency be diverted into abnormal channels.

The chief danger lies in the accentuation of the character by too close inbreeding with those having a like tendency. In fact, the general attitude of the person who has this paranoid make-up in a mild degree may be said to be an enviable one rather than otherwise. He is aggressive in upholding his rights, suspicious of attempts to thwart him in the pursuit of the same, and strives constantly to reach the goal of his ambitions. These are all admirable traits. It is only when they become accentuated to the point where they are pervaded by delusions of grandeur and persecution, that they render the person possessing them a menace to society.

To return to the thought expressed at the beginning of this paper, that the prevention of mental diseases is quite the most important part of their treatment, it would seem that the Jews have it in their power to ultimately stamp out the feeble-minded and insane from among their race. The way in which they can do this must be plain to whoever has followed the gist of my argument. It is all a question of eugenics. A little more care in the matter of consanguineous marriages and a quick and thorough departure from the old beaten tracks which forbid the introduction of non-Jewish blood into their veins, will, in the course of a few generations, redeem them from the unhappy mental state info which they have fallen.